Comments on: Moral Disgust Linked To Primitive Emotion

Study Shows Our Sense Of Right And Wrong Has Roots In A Survival Instinct Of Early Humans

[tokyo2nite]

Bill_from_Dallas: "when you have totally explained away mankind as accidental cosmic slop, driven and defined only by evolutionary processes. you have opened the door to a society so inhumane you cannot imagine it"

Oh, we can imagine it, all right. It didn't take a belief in evolution and natural selection to prompt Hitler and Stalin. Here's a few facts for you:
1. Stalinist Russia rejected Darwinian evolution as "bourgeois" and supported the non-Darwinian "proletarian biology" of Lysenko and Michurin. This mistake set back Soviet science by decades.
2. Hitler is often accused of being an evolutionist, but this is another mistake:

"Hitler's goal was the "purification" of the "Aryan race" through the elimination of "subhumans", which included Jews, gypsies, Asians, black Africans, and everyone else who was not a white Aryan. Despite the creationists claims that this was based on Darwinain evolutionary theory, Hitler's own writings give quite a different story. The ICR claims that "Hitler used the German word for evolution (Entwicklung) over and over again in his book." (ICR Impact, "The Ascent of Racism", Paul Humber Feb 1987) Like so many of ICR's claims, this one is simply not true---a quick scan of several online English translations of Mein Kampf shows only ONE use of the word "evolution", in a context which does not refer at all to biological evolution, but instead to the development of political ideas in Germany: "This evolution has not yet taken the shape of a conscious intention and movement to restore the political power and independence of our nation."

"Had ICR made even a cursory reading of Mein Kampf, they would have seen a quite different source for Hitler's racist inspiration than the one they would have us believe. White Aryans, Hitler writes, are the special creations of God, the "highest image of the Lord", put here specifically to rule over the "subhuman" races: "Human culture and civilization on this continent are inseparably bound up with the presence of the Aryan. If he dies out or declines, the dark veils of an age without culture will again descend on this globe. The undermining of the existence of human culture by the destruction of its bearer seems in the eyes of a folkish philosophy the most execrable crime. Anyone who dares to lay hands on the highest image of the Lord commits sacrilege against the benevolent Creator of this miracle and contributes to the expulsion from paradise." (quotes from http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/hangar/2437/nazis.htm).

3. It didn't take atheism and evolutionary theory for our European ancestors to dream up the most terrifying tortures ever invented--it was their belief in god and the conviction that their enemies were allies of satan. Look at the medieval church's view of Jews and witches, the wars of religion, the grand entertainments known as the *auto-da-fé*--all these were created not by atheists, but by people who believed their god was right and everyone else was under satanic powers.

[Bill_from_Dallas]

To Mdalerwill...

Come on, start actually thinking! I didn't say secular humanists didn't have a conscience. i said that conscience is not merely the product of some primeval leftover emotional system. Geez, start processing information. Theists and secular humanists alike have a conscience--an innate sense of right and wrong. Where did it come from is the question. The Bible teaches that the law of God is writen in our hearts whether we believe in the Bible or not. That's why EVERY culture has moral codes that undeniably lead to health, happiness and the common good (with a few misguided exceptions.) My point is ... when you have totally explained away mankind as accidental cosmic slop, driven and defined only by evolutionary processes. you have opened the door to a society so inhumane you cannot imagine it. Remember, all Hitler had to do was redefine Jews as subhuman and scientific minds killed them like so many insects. Imagine if you successfully define ALL mankind away as ambitious protozoa. That effectively destroys any moral codes about sanctity of life. Witness communism ... the State is the ulimate arbiter of truth ... ergo .. if 30 million souls don't agree with the state... kill them.. starve them ... imprison them as slaves. You better think your evolutionary crap all the way out my friends .... you might find yourself on the wrong end of "only the strong survive."

[payasyougo]

Moral judgments are a instilled by proper parental guidance and reinforced by a proper educational system. Good luck in this society.

[sockpuppet4]

What a crock. Perhaps research money at the University of Toronto would be better spent on a few paint by number sets in the investigator's lounge.

[Arbuckle_Doc]

It's the same as the old question of, "Where did we come from?"; that is NOT the question that should have been asked, in the first place! What SHOULD have been asked, is "Where are we going to?" Likewise, the important thing is, NOT where our morality came from, but that we HAVE a sense of morailty, in the first place! Theist or Non-Theist does not matter; we all have a sense of right and wrong, from our childhood on, and THAT'S a good thing!

[mdalerwill]

Posted by Bill_from_Dallas at 1:46 PM : Feb 27, 2009


You say moral judgements are driven purely by conscience. Why do you (seem to) assume secular humanist are without conscience simply because they are without religion?

[Bill_from_Dallas]

Oh my God. What a bucket of junk science. Honestly, don't people use any sense at all anymore. Moral judgements are driven purely by conscience, which is an informed cognitive process, not a lower brain, emotional one. The mere fact that negative emotions are present with moral disgust does not relegate moral judgement to the same level as a bad smell. And while we're at it ... have you secular humanists followed your logic out to its final conclusion: everyone is random tissue and might does indeed make right. Ready for a brave new world?? I don't think you're going to like where your spiritually darkened minds take you.

[farmerbb]

What ? You mean we did not get our morality from the bibul after all ? It came to us looooonnnggg before the bibul was even thought of ? Gosh darn. There goes another nail in the coffin of religion. Pretty soon the lid will be nailed down tight. Not a moment too soon, either.